Explaining Mechanics: Armor Penetration

Video Statistics and Information

Video
Captions Word Cloud
Reddit Comments

That one bounced!

👍︎︎ 6 👤︎︎ u/Boreshot78 📅︎︎ May 29 2018 🗫︎ replies

I didn't realize the 2 caliber rule was a thing!

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/three60mafia 📅︎︎ May 29 2018 🗫︎ replies

I'm guessing the reticle doesn't account for angle... only armor thickness and pen chance based on ammo?

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/alexb92 📅︎︎ May 29 2018 🗫︎ replies

Helpful, only wish I'd seen it a few thousand deaths ago.

👍︎︎ 2 👤︎︎ u/SuperMcG 📅︎︎ May 29 2018 🗫︎ replies

Forgive me for not being able to succinctly ask this.

What I always wanted to know... Does game factor in the shape of shells? These videos always make it seem like the oblong ammo always comes in at the same angle from where you fire. It doesn’t mention arcs of the shell, or if the very tip of the point of the shell matters.

For example - I have a tank with 125mm of penetration at all times against an enemy evil perfect box like vehicle of 100mm armor thickness everywhere on him.

  • I shoot at a 500m at said evil armored box on a perfect flat surface. This time with a gun with an incredible arc for long distance shots. I hit exactly in the center, but the arc looks like it would if you threw a ball at 45 degrees.

    Does the game calculate I hit at the angle the shell is coming in? Technically my shell just hit that evil square at a bad angle.

    Next question, but the vehicle is now an evil triangle with 100mm of armor. I fire once again at the evil pyramid. If my round went perfectly straight - I wouldn’t penetrate due to his effective armor being greater.

    However my round arcs up, and then down - and basically hits at a much flatter angle.

    Would I penetrate in this instance, and does the path of the arc matter when dealing with effective armor?

    I hope I made the question correctly. I care because RNG can give some tanks wild shots. Like sitting in a tank French TD, level height, and then fire - just to see the arc of the tracer go from my tank into the ground within 10 meters.

    Also I’ve had some VERY strange bounces in LTs from being the enemy.

    Edit - I know it matters to Arty. I have seen no testing with other vehicles. I always wanted to test with tanks that have mortar like guns.

    I also wish we could turn off the auto rang we have. That way we can Arc shells ourselves!

👍︎︎ 2 👤︎︎ u/ScorpioLaw 📅︎︎ May 30 2018 🗫︎ replies

Glad this is out

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/XxCptNICK94xX 📅︎︎ May 29 2018 🗫︎ replies

So there is a slight error at about 6:30... The narrator and equation explain striking armor at an angle, but the image is of a round hitting a corner, which is different (because the bend in the armor makes it effectively thicker than just hitting an angled shot). Great vid tho.

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/TheSharkBall 📅︎︎ May 29 2018 🗫︎ replies

I just want my gun to be as accurate as the one on the ms-1 at the end of video.

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/Nann3r_Puss 📅︎︎ May 30 2018 🗫︎ replies
Captions
Just look at THIS! Almost eight tons of German high-alloy steel! A threat to any enemy! The most powerful gun in World of Tanks! Thousands dream of it! Millions tremble before it! But sometimes even this gun can’t compensate for the “outstanding” skills of a player. To avoid this happening too often, today we’ll talk about armor penetration. Explaining Mechanics Armor Penetration Any gun has a standard set of characteristics: damage, accuracy, aiming time, and rate of fire. But all this is useless if you’re unable to penetrate the armor. To fire effectively, you should learn how penetration mechanics work, understand their principles. Let’s start with some theory from our confidential informant. Every shell in the game has its penetration capability. The documentation specifies its average value when firing from 100 meters. The actual penetration can be 25 percent higher or lower. The damage caused is calculated in a similar manner. Thanks, CI! Let's go further and have a small experiment. We’ll take two T57 Heavy and two AMX tanks. This choice is not accidental: both vehicles feature 120-mm guns, equal average damage, and almost the same penetration with Armor-Piercing and High-Explosive shells. The key difference is the type of Premium shells they have. The AMX features Armor-Piercing Composite Rigid shells, and the T57 Heavy can fire High-Explosive Anti-Tank shells. The targets are placed not far from our vehicles. I don’t think any of the tanks will have problems penetrating their armor, but let's see. The first tank fires an AP shell; the second shoots an APCR shell; the third vehicle goes for a HEAT shell; and the fourth firesan HE shell. None of them had a problem. Let’s make the task more complicated: we’ll put the targets behind cover and repeat the experiment. As you can see, the result is a bit different... The HE shell dealt only splash damage, and the HEAT shell got stuck in the fence. But this isn’t over yet. Now we’re going to remove the obstacles and take the target a bit farther away. The guns fire, and... The result is different again. Few people realize that different shell types would be best for firing at the same target in different situations. To do this correctly, you need some theory. As you know, there are four shell types, each with its unique properties. The main shell type used by most tanks is the Armor-Piercing shell. These shells fly quickly, but their penetration capability slightly reduces with distance. Their penetration capability also reduces when they hit a destructible object, like a fence or a vehicle. The fastest shells are APCR ones. Only weekends pass by faster. APCR shells can go through fences too, but with distance they lose their penetration capacity more than AP shells. The HEAT shell is a different story. Its penetration capability doesn’t depend on the range and remains the same along the entire trajectory. But this comes at a price: this shell is the slowest one. And if it hits a fence, it won’t go any farther. HE shells fly almost as fast as AP ones, and they don’t lose their penetration power with distance. After hitting any object, an HE shell detonates, and its fragments can damage a vehicle nearby. In addition, these shells have the highest potential damage and the lowest penetration capability. And now let me give you some pieces of advice. If you want to cause damage through fences, fire AP shells or APCR shells. To fire at a slow and well-armored vehicle located far away, you’ll hardly find anything better than the HEAT shell. If you take a shot at scouts from a long distance, the ideal choice is the APCR shell. And if your enemies are paper-thin, send them some High-Explosive “parcels.” And some more tips. Any destructible building consists of sections. If you want to destroy the building quickly, fire an HE shell at the joint between these sections. You can also use an HE shell to knock down a tree. Or knock off the base capture without exposing yourself to enemy fire. With a large-caliber HE shell you can even shoot down an airplane! …That last one is a joke, of course, but the rest work! …So, we already know how shells fly. But what about all these hits, ricochets, penetrations, and non-penetrations? That’s simple! We have two parameters: shell penetration capacity and armor thickness. Both are measured in millimeters. If the first number is higher than the second one, the enemy receives damage. Arithmetic, first grade! However, this is true when the shell hits the armor at a right angle. In other cases, the penetration power is calculated differently… Let’s take a point on the armor and draw a tangent and a normal through it. Speaking simply, a perpendicular line. The shell’s angle of entry is an angle between the normal and the projectile’s trajectory. In this case, the shell has to penetrate a much thicker layer of armor. The relative armor is calculated as the ratio of the nominal armor thickness to the cosines of the entry angle. The smaller this angle is, the higher the chance of penetrating the armor. Geometry, seventh grade! That’s why you shouldn’t always fire rapidly. Sometimes, it’s better to wait a few seconds and fire with certainty. Each vehicle has its weak spots. Normally, these are the cupola, driver’s hatch, and lower glacis plate. However, if there isn’t any chance to choose, the theory will help you again. To ensure higher shell effectiveness, the design of shells allowed them to shift, adjusting to the normal vector. This resulted in thinner relative armor. This effect is called “shell normalization.” The normalization angle for AP shells is five degrees. The normalization angle for APCR shells is two degrees. HEAT shells are not subject to normalization at all, neither are HE shells. That’s how it looks in practice! The armor plate thickness is 38 millimeters. The shell’s entry angle is 60 degrees. In this case, the thickness of the relative armor is 76 millimeters, which is one millimeter thicker than the maximum allowed penetration capability of the shell. However, we know that AP shells normalize by 5 degrees. Due to this, the relative armor thickness decreases, which gives us an opportunity to penetrate the vehicle’s armor. Not each time, but still. But there’s more than that! Using a higher caliber will allow... And now we will talk about one of the main axioms of armor penetration mechanics: the Two Calibers Rule. This rule says: If the shell caliber is more than twice the nominal armor thickness, the shell’s shift angle to the normal vector increases according to the formula: So! If you use a higher caliber, the normalization factor will greatly increase! The target, the angle, and the armor penetration performance is the same. But the shell has to pierce 50 millimeters of armor instead of 66 millimeters. Now, each shot results in damage! But that’s too simple! Let’s increase the angle. It’s still able to penetrate, but wait, what do we have here?! Ricochet! By the way, talking of ricochets! AP shells and APCR shells ricochet at an angle of 70 degrees or more, losing 25% of their penetration capability. HEAT shells ricochet at an angle of more than 85 degrees with no loss to their penetration capability. HE shells don’t ricochet at all. And now it’s high time for another important axiom in World of Tanks: the Three Calibers Rule. It only applies to AP shells and APCR shells and says the following: If the shell caliber is more than thrice the nominal armor thickness, there will be no ricochet. Whatever the thickness of the relative armor, the shell will attempt to penetrate it at any angle. Woah-woah-woah! Easy! In summary, if the angle is more than 70 degrees, there’s no point in using AP shells or APCR shells. Unless you’re trying to aim at an enemy vehicle hiding behind a building! Or you’re firing from a really big gun! If you use HEAT shells, you can fire at even greater angles. However, note that this type of shell doesn’t normalize and it will have to pierce the whole thickness of the relative armor. So, don’t be too surprised if you hear “We didn’t penetrate their armor.” But we’re not finished! We haven’t mentioned the screens! When an Armor-Piercing or Armor-Piercing Composite Rigid shell hits spaced armor, the following happens: The entry angle and the shell’s precise penetration capacity are calculated. At the same time, the ricochet and the Three Calibers Rule are being verified. If neither of the two is triggered, normalization and relative armor thickness are calculated. Then, if the shell has enough piercing power, it penetrates the screen. But its penetration capability is reduced by the value of relative armor thickness. Then, if the projectile hits the main armor, the abovementioned calculations are made again. And it’s only after this that damage is or isn’t inflicted on the enemy vehicle. When a HEAT shell hits the screen, the situation is somewhat different. The Three Calibers Rule doesn’t apply here, the ricochet angle is different, and the shell doesn’t normalize. Hence, the cumulative jet attempts to pierce the screen at the same angle as the shell’s trajectory. If the armor has been penetrated, this jet will lose 5 percent of its armor-piercing power for every 10 centimeters of travelled distance. That’s why HEAT shells rarely deliver damage when hitting spaced armor or tracks. The effect on the armor made by High-Explosive shells is quite a long story, which we’ll tell you next time! And now, a few words about one painful issue: “Critical hit.” This doesn’t happen very often, but every time it does, players get frustrated. This message should be familiar to every tanker. It’s played when a shell penetrates the screen but doesn’t hit the tank’s main armor. And if a shell penetrates the screen, then hits the main armor, but fails to penetrate it, the player hears “We didn’t penetrate their armor.” You can also hear this message when firing at any external module. Each gun, track, and piece of optical equipment has its own armor thickness. When a shell hits these elements, it doesn’t rebound and has to pierce through their armor. After this, if the projectile doesn’t hit the main armor, the player hears “Critical hit.” And if it actually hits the main armor without penetrating it, the firer hears “We didn’t penetrate their armor.” Of course, there are other situations when you may hear these messages, but we've discussed the most frequent. That’s all for today. Remember: You can research a top vehicle, mount the most expensive equipment and consumables, or even fire Premium shells. But if you don’t learn how to effectively penetrate enemy vehicles, the only thing left is to rely on your skillful comrades! If you want to know more about what happens to a shell after it penetrates the armor, click the Like button and leave your comments! We’ll make a video! Use these mechanics and win some battles!
Info
Channel: World of Tanks Europe
Views: 416,225
Rating: 4.6405263 out of 5
Keywords: World of Tanks, wot, worldoftanks, tanks, tank, free 2 play, gaming, video game, computer game, free games, multiplayer, wargaming, explaining mechanics, armor penetration, ap shell, he shell, apcr shell, heat shell, blocking damage, bouncing shells, wot guide, world of tanks guide, wot noob guide, wot shell types, world of tanks penetration, wot penetration
Id: RqVfdeGCov4
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 14min 32sec (872 seconds)
Published: Wed Mar 28 2018
Related Videos
Note
Please note that this website is currently a work in progress! Lots of interesting data and statistics to come.